About to turn 49, on January 5, and with the prospect of five or six months of recovery of the right tibia he broke skiing, Miguel Angel Jimenez is not at all amused to be asked about his possible incorporation “soon” to the senior circuit. Because MAJ still has the same competitive spirit he had thirty years ago, and not being among golf’s elite makes him quite angry.
Just two months ago, in November, he was crowned again in Hong Kong, which gives an idea of his level of form on the verge of fifty. This triumph places him as the oldest winner in the history of the European Tour. But the most obvious sign that the years do not seem to pass him by is that 12 of his 19 titles have been won over the forty barrier.
That’s why it hurts him doubly when he broke his right tibia while skiing in Sierra Nevada: “I was playing so well….” he complains, because he was planning to give one hundred percent at least one more year, wetting the ears of so many youngsters on the Tour who could be his children.
Miguel Angel, who has had to make some concessions in his physical preparation to be at the level of the youngest, not below, has competed successfully for three generations: that of Ballesteros, that of Tiger and that of the young McIlroy. Now he is going to miss the next few months of competition, and at least the Masters at Augusta, which he has not missed since 2004, and who knows what else, because he has until next summer to recover.
“Life comes as it comes,” he says somewhat resignedly. “Some time ago I got hooked on skiing and even though I knew I was running these risks I couldn’t give it up,” because among other things he practiced it so that his children would do it too.
It was bad luck. But the pisha still has illusion for golf, “that has given me everything”, and that if, even not to speak of the senior.
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